A wide variety of walkers for inform or semi-invalid persons are known in the art. Such usually consist of two spaced and braced U-shaped frame members which constitute the legs of the walker and which are interconnected on one side by at least one bracing, the other side being open for the positioning of the user. Oftentimes, the feet on the side interconnected by the bracings can be provided with wheels for increased mobility.
Some walkers are provided with mechanisms which allow the legs to pivot relative to the bracing so that they can, in effect, be folded for storage of the walker. Such mechanisms are of wide and varied configurations, but all suffer from one problem or another. Many are quite complex, expensive to manufacture and difficult to operate, and most include a button or buttons which are depressed to release a latch mechanism so that the legs can rotate relative to the bracing. In some of these mechanisms, the buttons, the latch mechanism, and/or the linkage therebetween are exposed creating potential pinch points for the user. In other versions, spring biased buttons hold telescoping tubes of the walker in place and plastic sleeves are positioned over the buttons to minimize the pinching problem. However, with these versions, the user cannot observe the position of the buttons and thus does not know whether the walker is in a locked, usable condition. Such could be a safety detriment to the already weakened user.